Eight antidotes 八斷行

Eight antidotes or remedies (Skt. aṣṭapratipakṣasaṃskāra; Tib. འདུ་བྱེད་བརྒྱད་, du ché gyé; Wyl. 'du byed brgyad) — the antidotes to the five faults or obstacles to shamatha meditation.

The first four of these are antidotes to laziness:

1. 欲 Aspiration, or interest (Tib. མོས་པ་, möpa)
2. 勤 Exertion (Tib. རྩོལ་བ་, tsolwa)
3. 信 Faith (Tib. དད་པ་, dépa)
4. 安 Pliancy, or flexibility (Tib. ཤིན་སྦྱངས་, shinjang)
5. 念 The fifth antidote, which is the antidote to the second fault, forgetting the instructions or the object of focus, is mindfulness (Tib. དྲན་པ་, drenpa).
6. 知 The sixth antidote, which is the antidote to dullness and agitation, is awareness (Tib. ཤེས་བཞིན་, shé shyin).
7. 思 The seventh antidote, which is the antidote to the fourth fault, under-application, is attention (Tib. སེམས་པ་, sempa).
8. 捨 The eighth antidote, which is the antidote to the fifth fault, over-application, is equanimity (Tib. བཏང་སྙོམས་, tang nyom).

依照敦珠法王《照亮解脫道之炬：前行修持之完整指導》（A Torch Lighting the Way to Freedom： Complete Instructions on the Preliminary Practice）講述： 對治懈怠的斷行，分別為「欲、勤、信、安」：想要觀修的意樂（欲）、努力觀修以保持意樂的精進（勤）、生起意樂之因的信心（信），以及全然調伏而柔順之身、語、意的輕安（安）──也就是精進之果。對治忘失禪定對境的斷行，為不忘失教誡之正念（念）。接著是警覺，檢視是否有掉舉或昏沉出現（知/以正知對治沉掉）；當它們出現時，實際運用對治來清除（思/以思對治不作行）；以及運用對治力度過大的時候，就讓它保持狀態而不再運用對治（捨/以等捨對治作行）。以上共為信、欲、勤、安、念、知、思、捨八斷行。

Further Reading

• Sogyal Rinpoche, A Treasury of Dharma (Lodeve: Rigpa, 2005), pages 191-205.